typetoken® » Uncategorisedhttp://www.typetoken.net Showcasing & discussing the world of typography, icons and visual languageFri, 24 Jul 2015 13:01:35 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2Fontsmith. Brandfont®http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/fontsmith-brandfont%c2%ae/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/fontsmith-brandfont%c2%ae/#commentsWed, 01 Oct 2014 16:00:06 +0000Blair Thomsonhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=16393As part of a review of it’s licensing model, leading type design studio Fontsmith, has launched a new service, Brandfont®, and now offers webfonts and other formats for digital use direct from its new website.

Founder Jason Smith explains: “Over the last 15 years, Fontsmith has grown and developed along with our customers, moving with and listening to the needs of brands worldwide. Our customers have also evolved and we now have four kinds of client that buy our fonts: designers, small businesses, digital customers and large brands.”

“I kept seeing adverts for different pricing levels for broadband from Sky, BT, etc, and as a customer, I could quickly and clearly see which was the right service for me. Font licences though, were very complicated, with different foundries using different approaches. Prices were based on the number of users and I kept being asked what a user was – an employee? A freelancer? A computer? A supplier? It was all getting too confusing, so I took a big step back.”

“Whilst needing to balance the value of what we do, with the value generated by the use of our fonts, it gave me the idea of having four different licences for the four different customer types. This is the basis for the new Studio, SME, Digital, Brandfont® licence model.” The Studio licence is intended for design agencies.

The SME (small medium enterprise) licence gives small businesses the luxury of a relatively exclusive typeface, which can be used by all employees, on the website and by suppliers.

The Digital licence was a little more complicated to define as digital use changes all the time. Fontsmith is now offering webfonts and mobile app fonts, direct from fontsmith.com, and have optimised all fonts for web browsers.

“As for Brandfont®, the majority of designers we work with, work in branding and want to use our fonts as the basis for something customisable and ownable. Because we have a reasonably extensive font library and are still a small company focused on creativity, we can do what we like with our typefaces to meet designers’ brand needs.”

“Having created fonts for some of the world’s most successful brands, including BBC, ITV, Jaguar, Sainsbury’s and Lloyds Bank, Fontsmith has become one of the world’s leading authorities on the design and technical requirements of fonts for brands.”

“Clients ask me the same questions – how can the font we choose for our brand be distinctive, practical and not cost the earth? How can it meet our clients’ needs: online, offline or in languages? Is there a simple way of doing this that can meet our deadlines and show financial benefits as well as creative?”

Hearing these questions and seeing the constant change in the channels, Smith realised that to really help his customers, a totally new approach was needed. Having been successfully trialed with a number of client brands, that new approach is Brandfont®.

“Brandfont® is aimed at agencies working for large brands and organisations, and is tailored specifically to offer solutions to any creative brief, ranging from simple corporate licensing and minor modifications, to full bespoke font creation and support. This is the type of work we are best known for and have been doing for years, and Brandfont® wraps all those customer requirements under one licence, making it simple for all of us.”

Whether the brand is large or small; just starting out or being re-positioned; is operating in one or 20 countries; Brandfont® provides answers to all the key questions and gives the practical support required to make every brand a success. It is a one-stop service, providing everything, from logistic ease, knowing the right fonts to use, the controlled distribution of type with other brand assets, competitive pricing and, of course, distinction. The key customer benefits of Brandfont® include:

• No annual subscriptions and no further fees to pay• Unlimited internal use licence• Free downloads and use for all suppliers worldwide • Brand font re-named to suit your brand• Exclusive global use rights of your modified or custom font• Unlimited use on website and self hosted web fonts• Multiple font formats as standard, for use across print, digital and web • Unlimited use across multiple digital devices and mobile apps • Screen optimised

Smith adds: “Our fonts are just that — ours. This gives us the flexibility to offer exclusive deals so customers can own, use and distribute as they wish, with unlimited licensing and usage. We deal with Brandfont® enquiries personally and have made the process refreshingly simple. There are no hidden extras and no restrictions. Once the project is agreed there will be no further investment required or fees incurred. It truly is a one-off fee. Simple.”

To launch the new licence model Fontsmith has also invested in a new website that offers test driving of fonts directly online, extensive support and a helpdesk, new information and backgrounds to designs and designers, a re-designed blog and lots and lots of knowledge sharing. Not to mention a fully adaptive responsive design, from super desktop to retina tablets to smart phones.

The launch of Brandfont® is aimed at reminding designers just how important great fonts are to successful brands. Smith added: “We have helped brands through this process so many times, I wanted to share our knowledge and make life easier for the agencies. This is a very personal service. We will look after you, help you through the process of commissioning a typeface and make sure you get exactly what you need. The message is simple – if you are building a brand, Brandfont® is here to help with all your type needs.”

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/fontsmith-brandfont%c2%ae/feed/0Perimeter Bookshttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/perimeter-books/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/perimeter-books/#commentsWed, 28 Aug 2013 05:41:46 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=13961Perimeter Books is a small bookstore, art space and platform for various art publishing endeavours in Melbourne, Australia. Perimeter carry’s a very curated selection of small press, art, photography, architecture and design publications, and contemporary artists with an interest in the printed form. If you can’t make it to their lovely store in Melbourne. You can always check out their online shop

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/perimeter-books/feed/0The Ne10 Stencil Prototypehttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/the-ne10-stencil-prototype/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/the-ne10-stencil-prototype/#commentsTue, 02 Jul 2013 08:14:21 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=13434It’s one thing to design something, and it’s another to see it in the physical world. Well Corey Holms has just done that with his stencil typeface Ne10. Working with the good folks at Fair Goods, Corey has turned his beautiful stencil typeface into a physical product. And I have to the say, the product is as beautiful as the typeface itself. Head over to fair goods to get behind the project.

I recently had the pleasure to talk with Ale Paul, the highly talented type designer about his new typeface Bellissima, how he feels about other designers implementations of his fonts, his technique for calligraphic typefaces and his top 5 typefaces of all time.

Bellissima Script is your new typeface. Where did your inspiration for this typeface come from?

Before Bellissima I designed a few calligraphic typefaces following different schools or styles like Burgues Script, Compendium, Poem Script or Business Penmanship. Bellissima began from an entirely different thread as those fonts. It started with Alex Trochut generously showing me a gorgeous lettering book from his grandfather’s library: Bellezas de la Caligrafía, by Ramón Stirling, 1844. Stirling was one of the Latin calligraphy pioneers who introduced a refined version of English calligraphy in Spain and made it popular in the nineteenth century.

My intention was to veer away from Stirling’s exuberant ornamentation, and work within simplified forms of his ideas. As it usually is with most of my projects, Bellissima became its own bird and shaped its own flying patterns. Suddenly there were many ligatures, multiple endings and swashed connections, hundreds of alternates for both uppercase and lowercase. Bellissima has an effusive energy that appeals much beyond its sourcing. It’s intended for these modern times of appreciation for old crafty things like stationary and letterpress, where its origins help it shine brightly.

Is there are any special considerations when designing a typeface on a computer that is meant to look like it is written by a calligraphic hand?

Yes, you should be perfect in technique details as connections and space between letters. And I think is very important to understand how the hand and writing works and reflect some of the imperfections of it. It should be as much imperfect as the human is but structured by the technology.

As a designer I feel typography is the most important element of any design, it makes or breaks it for me. When designing type do you ever take in consideration how other designers may implement your fonts?

Yes, I think as a graphic designer user in every font I design. I imagine uses and play with it, every glyph I do I try words and imagine a context and its results. My typefaces are not neutral and are very focused in a concept and this concept includes the use. About the use, at the beginning, I was very critic with some ways the designers were using my fonts but after a while I relaxed and let it be. There are some very good designers that makes your fonts looks better than I imagined them too, they play with them and sometimes they add extra elements than improve the use a lot. So its a balance. Fonts are a resource as colour is another. Some people can use cyan or magenta in a good or bad way.

A question I want to ask every type designer. What are your top 5 favorite typefaces?

Its not easy to answer this. It depends of the use and of course I will not mention my own fonts. So, being totally unfair with many others I will select FF Tartine, Tangier, Avenir, Bickham Script and Regal Display.

I want to thank Ale for taking the time to speak with us about his work, and process. You can see more of Ale’s wonderful typefaces here. You can also stay up to date with his future type endeavors by following him on twitter & dribbble.

YCN launches brand new Professional Awards with glittering Call for Entries campaign by Craig Ward.

Emerging creatives around the world are invited to share the best of their work as part of a brand new professional award programme from YCN, launched in international partnership with Soho House.

Since 2001 YCN has been operating an international award programme for creative students. YCN is now seeking to elevate and recognise outstanding talent rising up within the industry.

Open to creative professionals to have graduated within the last 8 years, the new YCN Professional Awards invite the submission of a portfolio showing four projects into categories for Design & Communication, Illustration and Animation. Portfolios must include client work, and postgraduate students are also welcome to enter. The deadline for doing so is March 28th 2013.

All portfolios will be considered by an inspring international jury, undergoing two rounds of online consideration followed by jury days hosted in Soho House London and New York. The 80 strong multi-disciplinary group combines established and newer names; including Creative Review editor Patrick Burgoyne, Sagmeister & Walsh’s Jessica Walsh and Blink founder James Studholme. Up to 30 winners will be identified overall.

YCN has internationally partnered with Soho House to host the jury days followed by launch events for a new YCN Annual. This hard-backed publication, to be Art Directed this year by Matt Willey, will showcase all Award winners alongside other notable submissions and be distributed across the creative industries. Winners will also be showcased online at the YCN website and invited to speak at industry facing events and screenings at Soho House venues internationally.

“We believe that well organised Award programmes have a valuable role to play in sharing brilliant new creative work and publicly recognising those behind it”, comments YCN Founder Nick Defty.

“We have set out to design something far-reaching and accessible that will give recognition to some of the most exciting talent coming through. Our partnership with Soho House will enable us to further celebrate this talent in beautiful spaces around the world”.

This year’s Call for Entries campaign, and a glittering interactive physical award, have been designed in collaboration with New York based typographer Craig Ward. Combining striking type with imagery of the award itself the campaign invites creatives around the world to ‘Shake it Up’.

“I photographed a tonne of falling glitter which is rather difficult to focus on!”, tells Craig. ”I built the type out from there. The most important thing I wanted to capture was the energy and excitement of rising up as a creative”.

The Awards cost £40 to enter and all those who do will become Super Members of YCN with colourful benefits for a year. “We want to make sure that everyone that enters gets great value from doing so” says Nick.

Entries are invited online by March 28th 2013. Full details can be found at ycn.org/awards

ABOUT YCN

Established in 2001, YCN is a member based organisation dedicated to empowering and celebrating creative talent internationally. YCN is free to join, and anyone can do so at ycn.org. YCN’s members are drawn to the worlds of design, advertising, illustration, animation and all creative business in-between.

ABOUT SOHO HOUSE

Soho House was founded in London, in 1995, as a private members’ club for those in film, media and creative industries. The group has since expanded to include Houses across Europe and North America.

ABOUT CRAIG WARD

Craig Ward is a British Designer and Art Director today working in New York. Known primarily for his delightfully innovative and experimental typography, Craig is a former ADC Young Gun winner and recipient of the TDC’s Certificate of Typographic Excellence.

ABOUT MATT WILLEY

Matt graduated from Central St Martins in 1997, before joining the internationally acclaimed studio Frost Design, later becoming Creative Director. In 2005 he co-founded Studio8 Design with Zoë Bather. Matt is co-founder of Port Magazine which launched in February 2011.

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/ycn-%e2%80%94%c2%a0awards/feed/0Swash & Kernhttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/swash-kern/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/swash-kern/#commentsThu, 17 Jan 2013 07:05:54 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=11591Swash & Kern is the bespoke lettering and type design of Positype’s Neil Summerour. Neil first opened Positype type foundry in 2000, and later went on to co-founded TypeTrust with Silas Dilworth. He’s published over 40 typeface families and 420 fonts. Designing fonts for such clients as Victoria’s Secret, PINK, id Software, Discovery Channels, Panera, Qdero Pateo, ABC, MTV, TLC, HP, G4TV , and The American Music Awards. Check out Swash & Kern to some more of Neil’s beautiful work.

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/swash-kern/feed/1Associated Typographicshttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/associated-typographics/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/associated-typographics/#commentsMon, 10 Dec 2012 13:17:47 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=11301Associated Typographics is a type foundry started by Michael Cina and Matthew Desmond. Having been working together since 1996. Michael and Matthew have developed a very impressive list of custom typographic work for such clients as Disney, Nike, Google, MTV, Victoria’s Secret among many others. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Michael Cina about Associated Typographics and their new release typeface Ramsey.

What prompted you to start your own type foundry?

This will be my fourth foundry now. Not many people know this, but I started out creating typefaces and doing design. My first foundry was CinaHaus in 1996 and shortly after I joined up with a couple of guys to start Test Pilot Collective. In 2000 I decided to go out on my own and I needed a place to sell my typefaces again. So I started up YouWorkForThem which I sold three years ago. Now that I am starting to release type again, I need a new home for the fonts. Matthew Desmond is also working with me on this venture.

What’s the initial idea behind the font Ramsey?

Ramsey began as just a sketch from some type I saw on an album cover when shopping. I kept redrawing it (I do this a lot) and adding in new characteristics. I never was too serious on it until 9 months ago I realized that there could be something there. So I kept redrawing and tweaking until I ended up with the final face. I feel it is solid and worthy to put my name on.

Working on fonts is hard because when you change one thing, often you have to change 14 other letters to ensure a consistent look. I wanted Ramsey to be really functional for all types of uses. I hate making fonts that have one use to them. I like to think of fonts like they are people, so they have unique characteristics and are multidimensional. I am a designer too so a lot of times I design the extra characters like they are part of something I would have fun using. I am doing this more and more.

Will Associated Typographics be a place you will showcase not only commercial fonts that our purchasable to the public but also custom typefaces?

Yes, that is the overall vision. The fonts will be primarily my solo fonts and faces and the ones I work on with Matthew Desmond. We will also be working together on custom typeface projects under Associated Typographics. We just finished the Disney project earlier this year and it had such a wonderful outcome. We compliment each other very well and have known each other since 1997.

And what’s next, any new fonts we should keep a look out for?

Yes, I have a lot in cue. I wish the day had more hours. I will have a muti-styled stencil family coming out at the beginning of next year. It will be loaded with a lot of little typographic toys. I have a lot of others in the works but I have been focusing on this one for now. I was thinking about taking a little time off this one to see how fast I could build out a font.

I do a lot of branding jobs through agencies and often I am drawing custom type for those projects. I enjoy it because it is just practice drawing new forms that I would not draw on my own. I am also working on some custom letters for a new project I am working on too. We will see if that turns into a typeface or not. It is pretty interesting at this point.

RoboFont provides a simple-to-use environment to draw and modify typefaces in. It has the following main design features:

- Is written from scratch in Python with scalability in mind. - Has full scripting access to objects and the application interface. - Can be used as a platform to build additional tools on. - Does not preform any ‘auto-magic’. - Does not overload the user with a multitude of options. - Uses the UFO format as it’s native file format.

The operating philosophy behind RoboFont is:

The tools you choose influence your creative process.

Because of this, RoboFont provides many opportunities for the user to tailor the application to their design process. It is strict about not preforming ‘auto-magic’ on one’s font files, ‘auto-’ anything is avoided if possible. This means that it does not do and does not have some features of other font editing applications. Because the application is extensible, if a user finds a need in their design process for a feature that isn’t part of RoboFont, it can be added. This allows the user the control to design the application to their design process.

However, the core of RoboFont is a full featured drawing editor, containing all the basic tools a typeface designer needs for drawing and modifying a design.

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/robofont/feed/0Peter Crawley — new workhttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/peter-crawley-new-work/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/peter-crawley-new-work/#commentsMon, 23 Jul 2012 13:35:23 +0000Blair Thomsonhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=10264Peter Crawley has been very busy lately. In addition to the 43 hand stitched pieces he recently created for the Wallpaper* Architects Directory he’s been spending some personal time exploring newer possibilities, evolving his existing style, with the same core materials.

“I really wanted to see where I could take things. I love the materials and want to keep learning about new ways to manipulate them, whilst retaining a very graphic style. I want to challenge what is possible and continue to move my work forward”.

The new explorations have had a positive impact on Peter’s approach and it is certain will go on to influence future work both in illustration and typographically-led pieces.

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/textaxis-type-design-2/feed/1Ten Dollar Fontshttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/ten-dollar-fonts/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/ten-dollar-fonts/#commentsThu, 03 May 2012 11:42:11 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=9288Ten Dollar Fonts is a online source for low cost experimental fonts / typefaces. Designed by a group of designers from all around the world, from New Zealand to Mexico.

All their fonts are for personal use unless stated. If you would like to use them for commercial you can contact them.

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/ten-dollar-fonts/feed/0Talbot Typehttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/talbot-type/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/talbot-type/#commentsThu, 03 May 2012 11:41:59 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=9301Talbot Type is a new font shop started by Adrian Talbot, design director at London creative studio agency Intro. Adrian’s fonts are influenced by the classic movements of the twentieth century — Modernism, Constructivism, the Bauhaus and Art Deco. I really like the font “Kettering 205″ a nice slab serif typeface. You can purchase a nice Talbot Type: Specimen Handbook and postcards here. ]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/talbot-type/feed/0Bespoke Type by Villagehttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/bespoke-type-by-village/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/bespoke-type-by-village/#commentsThu, 12 Apr 2012 08:43:12 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=9158

Bespoke type by Village creates a range of custom types in styles, from more traditional (for American Express’s Membership Rewards program) to very contemporary, (for the Syfy television network,) with stops in-between, including the work for the Alliance for Climate Protection, to the typeface we created for the New York City Opera, which IS their brand.

]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/bespoke-type-by-village/feed/0Happy Holidays!http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/happy-holidays/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/happy-holidays/#commentsThu, 22 Dec 2011 11:23:45 +0000Mark Milichttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=7844 ]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/happy-holidays/feed/1Practice Foundryhttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/practice-foundry/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/practice-foundry/#commentsFri, 30 Sep 2011 08:14:21 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=6722Practice Foundry is a Vancouver-based experimental type foundry established in 2011. Our passion is to contribute towards developing a stronger typographic presence in Canada. Composed of type work from amateur type designers across Canada, their aim to share, learn and be inspired by typography around us. ]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/practice-foundry/feed/0ARS Typehttp://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/ars-type/ http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/ars-type/#commentsMon, 26 Sep 2011 17:40:23 +0000Abdullah Shakurhttp://www.typetoken.net/?p=6560ARS Type is a type foundry founded by 1994 by photographer and graphic designer Angus R. Shamal, ARS Type is an independent type foundry based in Amsterdam. Typeface design began as a necessity for several graphic projects, but it soon grew into a passionate interest in form and legibility. This lead to the production of a versatile library of unique, high-quality text and display faces designed to address the ever-changing needs of today’s creative. In addition to developing the retail library, ARS Type specializes in developing custom type solutions for a variety of applications. ]]>http://www.typetoken.net/uncategorised/ars-type/feed/3